[Mailman-Users] Silently discarding non-member posts

[Mark Goodge]

At 17:40 14/10/2002 -0400, mailman at tux.org wrote:
>On 14 Oct 2002, Jon Carnes wrote:
> > >
> > > One thing that makes all this more awkward to deal with is the
> > > number of non-member (spam) posts that end up in the admin queues
> > > waiting to be discarded. As I only ever want to discard them, never
> > > forward them, approve them or reply to them, I would prefer them to
> > > be silently dropped by Mailman without them ever reaching the admin
> > > requests queue.
>
>Another approach is to stop spam where it should be stopped: before
>or at the MTA.  It is only prudent for Mailman and other programs
>that deal with e-mail to be built with an awareness of the reality
>of spam, and it is helpful when such programs include anit-spam
>features ... but these should always be regarded as -helps- not
>solutions.

 From Mailman's point of view, though, the origin of the email is 
irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether it's "genuine" spam, a mistaken 
attempt to contact the list administrator by using the list address instead 
of the admin address, a member trying to post with the wrong address, or 
whatever. All of these are non-member posts, and all of them get treated 
exactly the same - that is, they are discarded without replies. A pre-list 
spam filter will deal with some of it, but not all of it.

Mark